Escape rooms are awesome for people who like to solve puzzles, see how things work, or enjoy a mystery. Everyone reading this falls into at least one of those categories. We enjoy puzzles and mysteries, but we have a fondness for seeing how things work. To this end, we direct your attention to [doktorinjh]’s “Bomb Disarming Puzzle in a Suitcase” Game, which is a mysterious puzzle box he built himself. I guess the mystery is mostly in the gameplay, which you can watch below because he shows us his build photos and describes the hardware inside.
At its heart is an Arduino Mega, a wise choice since our back-of-the-napkin estimation puts his I/O count over forty-five and the Mega can handle them all with a few pins to spare. Working inside the confines of a briefcase came with its own challenges, but we adore the way he used the hexagon theme in the top panel to allow for knob clearance. It was so subtle that we almost missed it.
The escape room theme is delightful, and we appreciate the mix of games, aesthetics, and techno-trickery in many forms.
https://hackaday.com/2018/11/06/suspense-courtesy-of-arduino-mess-of-wires/ I did something similar but his better. Very good job.
Here for the source code: https://pastebin.com/8pVWh6QK
Have you got the connections diagram, please?
You cannot make this article without a reference to the game Keep “Talking and Nobody Explodes”
https://keeptalkinggame.com/ which is probably the source of inspiration.
While that game was a minor inspiration (I’ve owned and played the game for years and highly recommend it!), the game play for this was centered around an escape room where you use clues to solve puzzles and where several of the clues build on each other. KTANE relies on the confusion aspect where each player can’t see what the other sees, whereas everyone works together on this. Thanks for checking it out!
I made a version of this just about a year ago that was a more direct rip of of Keep Talking an Nobody Explodes.
https://imgur.com/a/J6HdM0v#w1oaDi1
https://www.dillonlareau.com/projects/KTANE_physical
https://github.com/dlareau/ktane-physical
I’m slowly pushing myself towards a newer second version, but have stalled a bit for the holidays.
I submitted V1 to the Hackaday tip line when it was finished, but no dice, maybe more luck with V2.
Wait– no explosion featured?!
Nixie tube bomb for added Jules Verne goodness.
It’s a shame they didn’t name it Escape Boom.
This guy.
Hi Brian, as a retired electronics engineer with too much time on my hands I help at the local Grammar school teach electronics. The pupils saw this project and wanted to know if they can make it as part of this years make project. I’ve tracked down your arduino code and have collected most of the hardware but I lack a circuit diagram. I still it possible to have a copy perhaps? I think I could reverse engineer the arduino mega code to work out the pin connects but a circuit would be easier for the pupils to follow. What are the chances, happy to make a recommendation or small payment via PayPal if appropriate etc. Personally I think you’ve down a great job of this project both mechanically and game play wise so I hope you can help share the fun. Regards and happy 2020 Nick
Oops I just realised that this should have been sent to the creator doktororingjh not you…any idea how I contact the creator?
This is great except it would be much much better if you had *.scad files instead of *.f3d. Then the entire world could reuse your source and the design could be parametric. It’s exhausting trying to use *.stl stuff when it’s not easily changed.
Not sure if you replied to the correct article; there are no *.f3d files?
This could make a great business, make a bunch of these and let people rent them from a website. Return when done.
Probably should not be played in an airport.
As long as there is a blue wire to cut to stop the timer.